Jump to content
Print your own personalised forum logo

New Member FB Wilds Carribean 39 Owner

CASMAH2

By CASMAH2
in New Members Say Hi !

 Share

Recommended Posts

CASMAH2

CASMAH2

Posted
Posted

Hello, I by chance fell upon FB Wilds web site looking for parts for by Perkins 4108. It was wonderful

to find out the history of my Carribean. I have lived on CASMAH since the early 90's. I always felt as if I was the ugly duckling in the moorings. Not a proper boat, bathtub etc.. were the comments. I love my boat however and have have spent years renovating it. Still not finished....Is there a Carribean Group in this forum ? I would love to share information and the history of Casmah.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Dan

Dan

Posted
Posted

Hello, I by chance fell upon FB Wilds web site looking for parts for by Perkins 4108. It was wonderful

to find out the history of my Carribean. I have lived on CASMAH since the early 90's. I always felt as if I was the ugly duckling in the moorings. Not a proper boat, bathtub etc.. were the comments. I love my boat however and have have spent years renovating it. Still not finished....Is there a Carribean Group in this forum ? I would love to share information and the history of Casmah.

Hi Seth

 

Glad you enjoyed the website.  It's a number of years since I created it and it is looking a bit basic now, but part of the plan was to go for a retro look anyway :naughty:

 

Jonzo has kindly added a forum section here as mentioned, I will have to update the website link to get you to the right section, at some point in the not too distant future!

 

It has relocated here quite recently from it's last home, but a couple of people had previously posted and were also living aboard so if you kick it off you might entice them back or a bit of owner participation!

 

I find it quite interesting that although it's almost fifty years since this design first hit the water the comments you got in your marina have not moved on and acceptance and opinion is still a bit love or hate.   Given the impact/influence that Frank Wilds had on further designs on a similar brief (goodness knows how many forward steer single level Bountys/Alpha's etc stemmed from his design, and now Richardsons have picked the baton up with their own interpretation) it is interesting that the same nicknames and dislike amongst many has not changed in all that time.

 

I have had many holidays on them, as well as many other styles I like, but the brief that were built to in 1966 is as relevant and well received today as it was in 1966, but back then it took quite a radical and brave mind to think it up and then actually build it.

 

Dan

Link to comment
Share on other sites
CASMAH2

CASMAH2

Posted
  • Author
Posted

In The Company of Strangers

A part History of Casmah 2

 

JBS and the Basin

 

The years have slipped by and what was taken for granted for so long is now

very much valued.

 

I grew up in the Council Estates of the old industrial Battersea. The chimney of Morgans was our neighbour in Battersea Bridge Buildings.

The river ran alongside my life in Battersea Fulham and Putney.

The first link came when a school friend said his father had moved out and

was building a boat on Eel Pie Island...it didnt mean a thing to me then.

Then years later JBS a fellow diving instructor asked if I would give him a hand bring a boat down from somewhere on a canal where it had been used as a cafe. He had to move out of his place in Brighton and was going to live aboard in Chiswick, do it up and take it to France... So I met my first Carribean. JBS had the energy of a teenager and must have been then in the 80's about 60 or more. I recall he would unscrew things as we motored along 

muttering that it was all rubbish and couldnt wait to gut the boat. Our destination was Chiswick Quay Marina. Cubbits Yacht Basin or The Basin as it was called in its previous life before the houses came..

So in later months I would turn up and watch his new radical design take shape. All the old windows removed replaced with ones from a Londond Bus, sides re fiberglassed, rear enterance sealed !!! steering position a third of the way inside midships !!! He had a master bedroom at the stern then a corridor with toilet, tool room, shower and storage cubicals. then his mad steering position and a long mid table with long seating each side to the forward windows. Oh and lorry wing mirrors. 

JBS was unusual - he did what he said he would. He finished his boat which he named after his friends two daughters, had it craned out and shipped over to Dunkirk. We lost touch for years but when i eventually did catch up with him he reported on the pleasure he and his friend had cruising thousands of miles over many years in France. I lost touch with JBS and I guess his Carribean with the bus windows and crazy steering position is still in France.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
CASMAH2

CASMAH2

Posted
  • Author
Posted

In the Company of Strangers

A Part History of Casmah2

 

From Henley to Harts c/o a BBQ

 

Whilst JBS was still working on his Carribean, I was visiting friends who had a house on the island at Henley. In the morning I swam round the Island and only

in the evening whilst rowing round, did I see her. Moored facing the Henley side was Casmah with a For Sale Sign. I ran in and spoke to Chris and Aileen. Yes they said, its owned my Ann and shes selling it and moving into a flat in town.

You cant buy a boat without a mooring...

The next weekend i was at a BBQ and the conversation turned to my desire to live on a boat. Angus said my mum lives on a boat at Harts in Surbiton. She is selling the boat and the mooring will be free, contact Ozie now.

So I got my mooring and then bought Casmah. Ann told me that her and her husband were only the second owners. The first owners bought the boat new from Wilds and had her kitted out at Springfields in Maidenhead. The name Casmah derived from Ciki and Suki, Mitch and Hugh, the owners and their two dogs. Hugh was a Commodore of a yacht Club and a theatre manager. Ciki was a beautiful actress. Casmah had never been used as a hire boat. It was unusual in that it had windows all around the bow. No forward outside area. Two Gull wings with steps either side as forward enterances. The windows were different, two long ones forward then six port holes then two more longish one at the stern for both sides. it also had rails all the way round. Inside from the rear enterance, there was a double bedroom on the port side. On the starboard side there was a corridor with a galley. Forward of the bedroom on port side was a head, forward of that a double bunk room.

Forward bow area the sloon with a white vinal semi circle seat. The whole ceiling was polystyrene.   

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites
CASMAH2

CASMAH2

Posted
  • Author
Posted

In the Company of Strangers

A Part History of Casmah2

 

Harts at the bottom of long water - then in the wake of JBS to the old Cubbits Yacht Basin

 

Just correcting my history as I check things ; Chiki not Ciki, Scampi not Suki.

Casmah - Chiki and Scampi, Mitch and Hugh

 

My period moored at Harts was dominated by my efforts building my dive school up. I never appeciated the mooring or spent much time on re fitting.

It was a wonderful spot on the river, always alive with traffic and movement.

A gate on the other bank led into the bottom end of Hampton Court and the mile long - long water. A ride in the Zodiac to go shopping into Kingston - all taken for granted then, never appreciated. To make matters worse I moved into a flat back in Battersea with a girl who hated boats ! Two years I neglected Casmah. The dive school was going well and I thought I would pay someone to start work on the re fit. It was a disaster. I got angry and left that lovely mooring and went to the basin in Chiswick where I am to this day. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
CASMAH2

CASMAH2

Posted
  • Author
Posted

In The Company of Strangers

A Part History of Casmah2

 

Gutting in the Basin

 

The space in the Carribean was still cluttered for me.

There were bulkheds ; aft bedroom, head/shower, double bunk room and galley/corridor wall.

 

The hull, the bearers were sealed in by a fibreglassed ply floor. 

The sealed sections had all taken in water over the years,

The colour and smell was not unlike fermented yuk.....

 

So began the gutting. The whole floor was ripped out. Every wall and bulkhead chiseled out laborously. Only one was left - the aft bedroom bulkhead. The fibreglass specks glinted in the sunlight - couldnt hold breath

long enough.

 

No - I said to my friends, the roof wont fall in.

 

The whole inside hull was dried out and painted.

New ply floor laid. 

 

The under deck areas which housed all the services and tanks were opened up and painted.

 

Casmah was lost its damp boaty smell.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Sponsors

    Norfolk Broads Network is run by volunteers - You can help us run it by making a donation

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

For details of our Guidelines, please take a look at the Terms of Use here.

  I accept